Thelonious Monk and Racial Pride

The community of the San Juan Hills, where Thelonius Monk lived during his years as a jazz musician in New York, was a completely different environment than that of Harlem. Harlem was almost completely populated with African Americans. Many residents had similar backgrounds and they were in general quite friendly with one another. San Juan Hill, however, was a neighborhood strife with conflict and territorialism. "Every block [was] like a different town," filled with Italians, Germans, Irish, Caribbeans, as well as blacks (Kelley 19). The community had a "reputation for violence" and was especially known for its race riots, so it seems logical that racial pride was a running theme in the neighborhood (Kelley 16). The neighborhood  and the daily violence that occurred within affected Monk heavily in his daily life; it weighed heavy upon him and shaped his personal beliefs (Kelley 18). He grew tired of the daily violence and fighting not only "whites" but men from all different countries. In a city strife with racism and infighting, two things mattered to Thelonious Monk: his music and his family. In reality, the two kept him grounded and focused on the future. His career was music, and his family was the driving force to keep him innovating and producing successful records (Stewart lecture 2/26/13). San Juan Hill did not completely leave a negative impact on Monk, in fact, it can be argued that he would not have thrived without them; the people on his block supported him throughout his career. Professor Stewart mentions that the help he received from neighbors in such a violent area gave Monk "sense that there was order in disorder," and that there was meaning to be found in even the strangest of situations (Stewart lecture 2/26/13). This sentiment can be found directly in his musical stylings. Eccentric, disjointed, and strange, Monk's music was extremely chaotic. It was not music you listened to while reading the paper, rather, it commanded your attention, forces the listener to focus and only then is the order and meaning revealed.
This is the type of community that Monk fostered, a community of thinkers and artists dedicated to finding meaning in music. Monk's music was so distinct from what had come before, so different and unique, yet lacked in popular themes of his time such as segregation and discrimination. Monk's music was not politically or racially driven, his love of music is what kept him going. He had no interest in that "Black power shit" as he had seen what the violence of racial pride could lead to. In his biography, Kelley also mentions that "virtually every kid became a kind of cultural hybrid," so Monk may not have connected as much to his black roots as others did. Monk was able to take the chaos and racial tension in the streets and transfer it through his music, rather than community involvement. Unfortunately, he was not able to overcome real racial discrimination in Delaware in 1958. Monk was wrongfully accused of "assault and battery on a police officer" among other things. He was severely beaten and his cabaret card was revoked for six years because of the incident (Kelley 254). Even Monk, a man who tranformed the tensions of San Juan Hill into art, was severely affected by this act of racism and violence.